Sonic Youth Snags Long Lost Guitar

Nearly a decade after Sonic Youth lost a slew of guitars and amps from a Ramada Inn parking lot in Orange County, California, Lee Ranaldo’s Fender Mustang has reportedly turned up… all the way in the Netherlands!

The Stolen Fender Mustang, returned to it’s rightful owner

According to the Offset Guitars message board (check it out here), a guy named “Sauerkraut” bought the stolen gear off eBay and decided to tell the band’s guitar tech about his discovery at a Düsseldorf gig last week.

“He came up to us,” Sauerkraut wrote, “gave me a mastery bridge (from one of Lee’s guitars, he even included the allen wrench keys!) on which Lee had written a thank you note. [The guitar tech] told us we can get on the guest list for any SY gig in the future.”

That’s fan loyalty for you! And it pays off…

Speaking of future Sonic Youth gigs, the band – who performed a new song on Later With Jools Holland, screened on BBC 2 last night – announced a stack of new shows today, namely a U.S. leg that starts on June 28 in Chicago and winds down on August 2 in Oakland, besides a rare appearance on British shores, playing at the My Bloody Valentine-curated ATP’s Nightmare Before Christmas, in December.